Terry Richards was a veteran stuntman who fell for The Princess Bride and was
famously shot by Indiana Jones

Terry Richards, who has died aged 81, was one of Britain’s most prolific stuntmen, getting into staged fights, doubling for stars and taking falls in innumerable films; his most notable part, however, simply involved being shot by Indiana Jones.

Boasting a genuine military background, Richards contributed to the fictional wartime skulduggery of The Dirty Dozen (1967) and Where Eagles Dare (1968); he was also an adversary to the British spy hero in seven James Bond films, and provided space-age menace in The Empire Strikes Back and Flash Gordon (both 1980). On television, he was one of the karate-chopping Cybernauts (in raincoat and dark glasses) in an episode of The Avengers (1967).

But nothing pleased fans as much as one brief scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), in which the powerfully-built Richards posed as a giant, black-clad, Arab swordsman. After the villain expertly twirls his scimitar in a blood-curdling display, Harrison Ford, as Indiana Jones, wearily draws his pistol and shoots him. Audiences loved it. Ford later disclosed that an extended duel, for which Richards trained extensively, had originally been planned. But the star had been suffering from dysentery and did not feel up for the fight.

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Terry Richards in one of his most famous scenes for Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981

David Terence Richards (known as Terry, and within the stunt fraternity as TR) was born in South London on November 2 1932. After school he served as a Sergeant Major in the Welsh Guards, then worked as a scaffolder before taking up a fellow ex-serviceman’s invitation to become a film extra. His 1957 debut as a stuntman required him to fall off a scaffold in a riot scene.

By 1960 he had become a founder member of the Stunt Register, a directory of stunt professionals available for film work. His Bond debut came in From Russia With Love (1963), and was followed by Goldfinger (1964) and the unofficial spoof Casino Royale (1967). On the set of You Only Live Twice (1967), he met Vic Armstrong, a stunt performer and arranger and future Oscar winner, with whom Richards would often work. As stunt supervisor, Armstrong would use Richards on Superman II (1980), Krull (1983), and Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989).

Richards was sometimes drafted in on dramatic roles as well as his stunt duties, notably in the fantasy adventure Red Sonja (1985), which was co-written by George MacDonald Fraser. The stunt coordinator on the film was, once again, Armstrong, who recalled: “Terry had a bit of stage fright and worried that his acting was not up to it. So I told him, 'Terry, I hired you, not an actor, just be Terry Richards’, which is what he did.” Armstrong noted that the film’s director, Richard Fleischer, “thought Terry was one of the best actors in the movie”. Arnold Schwarzenegger played the lead.

In 1987 Richards’s stunt fall for Rob Reiner’s charming The Princess Bride set an industry record for height, while in 1990 Total Recall (1990) reunited him with Schwarzenegger. Fittingly, his final films were in the Bond series, and under Armstrong’s supervision: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and The World Is Not Enough (1999).

In between films, Richards donned chain mail for international jousting shows, playing the Black Knight. He also participated in jousting displays at the Tower of London’s Beefeater Restaurant.

Terry Richards, whose marriage ended in divorce, is survived by a son and a daughter.